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Thursday, August 18, 2005
Senators hit House proposal to proceed with 'Cha-cha'
SENATE President Franklin Drilon dismissed the threat of the House committee on Constitutional amendments that the Lower Chamber would proceed with Charter change even without the Senate's participation.
"It's a waste of time, we will not participate in the charade. We will just do nothing," Drilon said in reaction to Cagayan de Oro Representative Constantino Jaraula's announcement that they will go on with revisions of the 1987 Constitution without the Senate's approval.
Drilon said such a move would be unconstitutional.
"They are entitled to waste their own time. The congressmen pushing this absurd idea will have to answer to the people should they insist on pursuing a course of action that is patently unconstitutional," Drilon said.
But he has faith that there are "sensible members in the House who would be able to pacify and stop Jaraula and members of his committee from pursuing this line of reasoning."
He reiterated that before any legitimate process to amend the Constitution can proceed, the House and the Senate will have to pass separate resolutions as mandated by the bicameral structure of Congress.
"We maintain that even in the case of a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass), the House and the Senate must vote separately. The Constitution provides that any amendments to the Charter must be approved by three-fourths of the total members of Congress, which is composed of the House and the Senate," Drilon said.
Jaraula said last Tuesday that even without the Senate, the House can proceed with amending the Constitution, citing an "option" of making the Charter change on their own even if senators refuse to participate.
Jaraula noted it was possible to exclude the Senate since members of both chambers would be voting jointly on proposed amendments. Under the Constitution, a three-fourth vote of "all members of Congress" was required to amend the Charter, stressing that only a three-fourth votes of the total members of Congress (195 votes) would be enough to revise the Charter.
Drilon and Senator Juan Ponce Enrile on Tuesday said the Senate will oppose any joint resolution for joint voting in amending the Constitution through an assembly.
"We will not even act on this, so the joint resolution will not pass Senate," Drilon said.
He added that Jaraula's position that the Senate and the House should vote jointly in a Constituent Assembly was "against the essence of a bicameral legislature."
"My inclination is to refer Jaraula and the members of his committee to the opinion of Fr. Joaquin Bernas, a noted constitutionalist and one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, that Congress is composed of two Houses and voting separately is the essence in a bicameral Congress," Drilon said in a statement Tuesday.
Senator Joker Arroyo, on the other hand, lambasted the House of Representatives, saying it has been transformed into the "House of Spoofs" for believing that it can actually proceed with the Charter change even without the Senate's approval.
"The House of Representatives has been transmogrified into the House of Spoofs if you look at the majority and the House of Dissipated if you look at the minority. It wasn't like that before. It has many talented stars, why the deterioration. Sign of the times?" Arroyo said.
He reminded Congress that in the enactment of laws, the Senate and the House must agree and one cannot act without the other.
"If in the passage of ordinary legislation, neither House can ignore the other, how in the world can the desperate House majority come up with this subterranean formula that in the more important business of amending the Constitution, the House can proceed as if the Senate does not exist? The Senate will simply ignore these tantrums," Arroyo said.
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, for her part, said she would file a petition for prohibition with the Supreme Court (SC) to order the House to desist from further proceeding on any resolution calling for a Con-Ass.
Santiago said the House would be acting without jurisdiction and with grave abuse of discretion if it would proceed with its plan to go on with rewriting the Constitution without the Senate's involvement.
"It is ministerial for the House to wait for a concurrent resolution from the Senate before a joint session of the two chambers can be held," she added.
Santiago argued that Congress is bicameral, thus voting on Charter change should be bicameral and that the Senate is superior to the House and the exclusion of the Senate would be fatal to a Con-Ass. (JPM/Sunnex)
(August 18, 2005 issue)
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